


Roses in December - Extras

by just_another_classic



Series: Roses in December [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 09:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16851331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_another_classic/pseuds/just_another_classic
Summary: This is a collection of excerpts, missing scenes, and AUs surrounding my fic Roses in December!





	Roses in December - Extras

**Author's Note:**

> So, with Tumblr being nonsense, I'm bringing some of my baby bits over to AO3 so I can have them in another place. 
> 
> This chapter was an AU for RiD if the Underworld arc happened!

_“But Wendy. You can’t leave her.”_ **  
**

She’s begging as she says this, begging him to find a way they both know doesn’t exist. But he can’t leave them. She went all this way to save him, save their family. He has know that. He has to fight for that – he can’t stay. He can’t.

But he is.

Killian licks his lip and closes his eyes, as if he is willing himself to find the strength to continue.

“Tell her…tell her that I love her.” Killian’s voice cracks. He presses his forehead to hers, and threads his fingers through her hair. Emma doesn’t miss how his hand is shaking. “Tell her that I’m sorry…and that I so terribly wished to be there for her. Let her know that I wanted to be a hero for her.”

Emma nods against him, knowing that anything else she says will come across as a sob. He urges her back, back toward the elevator, to her family, and away from him.

“Don’t let her forget me, love.”

“I promise,” she manages. He presses a kiss to her forehead, and pulls away. He reaches up, and pulls down the gate. “I love you.”

“I love you, Emma.”

He kisses her, a final goodbye before the elevator is released upwards as she sent above, to her family, their daughter, leaving him behind. For good.

  


-/-  
  


In a flash of white light, Killian returns to the land of the living.

He doesn’t realize it at first, his hope of a resurrection dashed in the pits of the Underworld. But then he smells the familiar scent of rain, feels the chill of autumn on skin, and sees a flash of golden hair, and Killian knows.

He’s home.

He utters her name – “Swan” – and his throat feels too tight, too dry, unfamiliar and wrong. But he’s alive.

And then she turns to him, launching herself into his arms. Emma is warm and laughing and kissing him, and most importantly, she is alive. He’s alive. He tries to explain what happened, even though he hardly knows himself, but his words are cut off by her lips on his, bruising and passionate. Killian doesn’t mind the interruption.

Eventually they pull away, gasping for breath. Killian marvels at how he needs to breathe again. He’s breathing! He had never thought he would do this again. There are many things he never thought that he would do again, bringing him to –

“Wendy,” he breathes, “Where is she?”

Killian wants so desperately to hold her, to see her, to let her know that her father is back and alive and not leaving her behind. He longs have her wrap her tiny fingers around one of his own, to look up at him with those large blue eyes of hers.

“She’s with my mother,” Emma answers, her voice somewhat sad. “I can go get her for you.”

“I’d like that.” Killian pulls Emma closer to him, not willing to let her go quite yet. He buries his nose in her hair, inhales to floral scent of her shampoo.

And then he looks behind him, and Killian sees the grave.  
  
-/-

They walk hand-in-hand down Main Street. Emma’s hand is warm in his own, and Killian marvels at how he is alive and holding her. His heart hasn’t stopped pounding in his chest since his return, overwhelmed and overjoyed to be given a second (third?) chance on live and to see Emma again.  
  
And Wendy.  
  
He’s desperate to see his daughter again, to hold her and apologize for leaving her behind. The last time he’d seen her, he had been infected with the darkness, and she’d cried so loudly as he had lifted her into his arms. He had never even said goodbye. Killian wants to hear her laugh. He can handle her tears, as well, if only because it will mean he is near her, that he is alive and still able to be a father to his child.

“She’s going to be fussy, just so you know. She’s teething,” Emma explains, her voice still cracking with unconcealed shock. Her eyes are rimmed red, but this time with happy tears, and Killian wants to kiss them all away. He wants many things – and, gods – he actually had time to do them all. “So if she starts crying, it’s not you.”

“It’s okay, Swan, I understand. I can handle the crying, you know. I’ve done it before. As long as I can hold her, I’ll be a happy man.” He chokes up a bit on the last part, the realization that he will soon see his child again seizing him. Emma squeezes his hand, and pushes herself closer against him. That gets to him, as well, simply being by Emma again. His heart feels so full that it might bust.

Emma kisses him outside of Granny’s before she enters the diner to retrieve their child. They had both agreed that it wouldn’t be wise for him to barge into Robin’s wake, his presence potentially twisting the knife into Regina’s gut after the loss of her own lover. Part of him itches to go inside. He isn’t fond of being separated from Emma any longer than necessary, and he is eager to abscond away with her and Wendy to Emma’s home.

Only things aren’t that easy. 

No sooner does Emma leave, that Killian feels the ground shake beneath his boots, and he sees pillars of light brighten the night sky. His heart seizes in his chest, fear overtaking at the thought that both Emma and Wendy could be in danger. 

(Gods, he just got them back, he will not lose them again.)

He barges into the diner, the room going quiet at his presence. There are a few gasps, and someone whispers his name, but his eyes are trained ahead of him on the sight of Wendy clasped in Emma’s arms. They’re safe. They’re alive.

Killian can breathe again.

-/-

He doesn’t get the chance to hold his daughter until late at the night, long after the sun has fallen and night has blanketed the town. His heart is heavy with the loss of Robin, and he feels rage coursing through his veins at that thought of whatever plan the Crocodile might be concocting, but he does his best to focus on this moment.

Wendy squirms in his arms. Killian remembers that she’s teething, and he searches to no avail for one of her gummy toys to soothe her. He adjusts her position, and bounces her just as he’d seen Emma do so many times before. She immediately begins to gum on his jacket. He doesn’t stop her.

She’s so light. He had almost forgotten how light she felt. It had been torment in the Underworld being separated from her. He had known Emma did the right thing by keeping her topside, safe in Storybrooke, but gods how he had wanted more time.

A proper goodbye.

He never got the chance to say goodbye any of the times he’d died. Not that she’d ever remember, being as young as he is, but he would. Instead, he’s plagued by the memories of failing her.

Gods, how he’d failed her. As much as Emma tries to tell him that he didn’t, he knows she’s only trying to soothe him. It makes him sick to think of it, how he’d put her in danger, and for what? Petty revenge. He vows not to fail her again, to be the man worthy of her love.

“I love you, Wendy,” he says before placing a kiss on the crown of her head.

“She loves you too,” Emma says, surprising him as she sweeps into the room. She’s changed out of her funeral clothes. She looks refreshing, more alive. Emma slides next to him on sofa, and rests her head against his free shoulder. “We’re glad you’re back.”

Killian feels the pinpricks of tears burning at the corners of his eyes as Emma snuggles closer into him. He has his daughter in his arms, his True Love by his side. He’s alive.

“So am I, Swan. So am I.”


End file.
